Drumlins Brewing Co. opens in historic Palmyra building on June 27

Drumlins Brewing Co. will open June 27 in an 1840s building on East Main Street in Palmyra, giving the village its first brewery since Prohibition and putting a long renovation to work as a 10-tap taproom. Co-owners Sarah and Peter Wimer spent years turning the former lawyer’s office, paint store and shoe store into a brewery that is trying to do more than pour pints. It is built to act like a neighborhood destination in a small downtown where the beer list, the room and the building all have to pull their weight.

The economics of the launch are clear in the build-out. Sarah and Peter Wimer won $20,000 in the Wayne County Economic Development Corp.’s KickStart Business Pitch Competition in 2024, money that helped push the project from idea to opening. The brewery started taking shape in 2022, after the Wimers decided to pursue the concept in Palmyra, and Peter Wimer, who homebrewed for years before moving into brewery work, is the brewer behind the house beers. For a small market like Wayne County, that kind of support matters because it lowers the risk of opening a destination taproom in a building that had to be adapted instead of simply leased.

Drumlins plans five to seven beers from Peter Wimer, plus guest taps from nearby breweries, cider from B&E Ciderworks and wines from Billsboro Winery. That lineup gives the room more than just a beer-drinker’s draw, and it also helps explain the floor plan economics behind the project. The taproom will have 10 taps, with some of that capacity reserved for an alternative-grain series built for drinkers with celiac disease or gluten sensitivities. Those beers will use sorghum, corn, millet or rice, and some may not land until the end of July because of supply-chain delays.

The gluten-free program is one of the brewery’s sharpest hooks. Drumlins is being positioned as one of the few breweries in the area offering dedicated gluten-free beers brewed on separate equipment, and one description goes as far as calling it only the second fully gluten-free brewery in New York State. That kind of niche is part product, part market strategy: it widens the customer base without asking the room to be huge.

Palmyra’s history does some of the same work for the brewery. Municipal history materials describe the village as a canal-era place shaped by the Erie Canal, and the Wimers have leaned into that with historical maps and local references in the decor, including nods to the drumlins that gave the brewery its name. New York’s tourism office has already listed Drumlins among its 2026 summer openings, which is what happens when a long, local build-out finally turns into a place people can visit instead of a project they keep hearing about.